So I re-read the relevant part of
The Rise of `Worse is Better'
which is short (http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html). Basically I
would say that Gabriel's conclusion is that the notion of letting one do the
looping on system calls by hand is the `right' approach, meaning the worse
one which is better.
No real insight into the problem, but still an amusing read.